Where We Go From Here
by Nyther53
Summary: Set after Enemy At the Gate, Atlantis has returned to Pegasus and the team is focused on taking the fight to the Wraith. But things aren't so simple for Sheppard, when Larrin's presence complicates things. Sheppard/Larrin and low key others.


Disclaimer: Don't own anything . please don't sue me.

This is just my idea of some stuff that could have happened after season 5, where the show could have gone after Enemy At the Gate. Set maybe a month or so after the finale, with Atlantis back in the Pegasus galaxy.

"You know back home, this would be really cool."

"Really?"

"Yes. Most women would be impressed. "

"Your people would be impressed by flying around in space for no particular reason?"

"Yes. It's cool."

"It's a waste of resources."

"It's an exploration of the state of your ship from the outside."

"The sensors can give us all that information."

"It's always best to eyeball it.

"Wha-"

"Yeah that's a hard one to explain. It's always best to have a human being look at the problem with their own eyes."

"So why do your people find maintenance impressive?"

"Maintenance isn't impressive. Maintenance in space is impressive."

"Why"

"Because everything in space is impressive."

"How about I shove you out the back and you can tell me if dying in space is impressive."

"I thought you only did that to people who disappointed you?"

"I'm considering expanding it."

"Your just pissed cause you got your ass handed to you by a Wraith Hive, and had to come to us for help."

"Why won't you people just fix the damn ship? Its been two weeks and all the damage the Hive inflicted seems fixed to me."

"Because we're still kind of new at this, and we want to study how your ship's systems work to see if we can improve our own."

"That is taking more than two weeks?"

"_And_ for a one time only special offer, you get a complete overhaul of your ship. Say, two months to tear out every malfunctioning, damaged, or degraded system and replace it with new ones."

"Wha- Why?"

"I told you Larrin, we need allies. We're willing to do basic patchwork repairs on any traveler ship willing to work with us against the Wraith. I convinced Woolsley that making your ship shiny and new again was worth it to convince the others that we could. We need every friend we can get with your kind of technology. Once we're done we want you to spread the word. We're taking this fight to the Wraith. No more budget, no more limits, no more holding back. We plan to crush them."

"What happened?"

"Why do you think something happened?"

"Well you're more pissed then I've seen you since the last time I punched you in the face"

"I'm sensing the two things are related."

"Aren't you people all about working together with the Wraith? Trying to resolve this peacefully?"

"Things change."

"The last time we were here you had two of your battlecruisers shadowing us. Now there's nothing."

"Your old ship was much cooler."

"John. What happened?"

He stayed silent for a moment, studying the Jumper's controls as he considered what to say. She waited patiently, slowly getting more concerned than she wanted to admit to herself as the silence streched.

"They tore our fleet to shreds. One of our ships will be in dry-dock for years, the other two won't be back in action for months. We lost a lot of good people."

She stayed silent, knowing from all her experience with him that there was more he had to tell her as her ship drifted past outside.

"They attacked Earth. Destroyed our most powerful defenses. They nearly culled my home Larrin. They could have killed everyone I know. They could have fed on everyone I love." His grip the Jumper slid ever so slightly off to the right as his grip on the controls tightened with anger. "The IOA has decided that our only two remaining ships will be kept in orbit around Earth at all times." Sheppard forced himself to relax, correcting their flight path and masking his face of all emotion as he tried to remain calm. "That bulkhead is barely holding together."

Before she realized it she had reached across the jumper and laid a hand on his shoulder. She tried to convey in that moment that she knew what he was feeling, She knew the weight of responsibility and terror that was crushing him. For one honest moment she tried to make him see that she could understand what he felt. The pressure of trying to keep the people you care about alive when the universe was stacked against you. She almost said it, almost admitted to having the same fears, and the same doubts. Instead she said "Well it's a good thing you're going to fix it then." She pulled away from him, stopped herself and let the conversation flow back to the task at hand, back to action they could take to make things better. She knew then that she wasn't leaving. She couldn't just abandon him to the Wraith while he was so vulnerable. "I understand you're going out on some kind of recon mission tomorrow?"

"M7G-235. It was a major Ancient stronghold right up to the end of the war. By the end of the war the entire system was responsible for a large portion of their shipbuilding and drone production, with a massive fleet kept there to protect it. It was one of the largest battles up until the fight for Atlantis itself, literally hundreds of Hive ships and Auroras are still littered in orbit, not to mention thousands of darts and dormant drones. Up till now it was considered too dangerous to send a manned recon team, between the debris and the thousands of weapons systems that could still be partially functioning. In fact we have reason to believe some of the planet's defenses may still be active and have no idea what is left of the weapons stores. Now that's what we're hoping for, to see if we can salvage anything we can to protect the city."

"I should come. I know a thing or two about navigating ship graveyards; we've raided old battlegrounds before."

"Why would you want to come along?"

"Maybe I want to he-" She broke off as a chuck's voice came over the Jumper's radio.

"Colonel Sheppard please return to Atlantis immediately. Mr. Woolsley wants to speak with you ASAP."

"Copy." Sheppard replied and turned the Jumper around, heading back to Atlantis in silence. He spent the whole trip wondering what she would have said without the interruption.

Woolsey was pacing slightly in the control room as John walked down the stairs from the Jumper bay, and the looks on the control room techs's faces told him something big was up. He quietly noted that Larrin was following him, sticking close after that weird moment in the Jumper. He didn't know what it had meant, but he was fairly sure it would result in him getting hit again.

"What's going on sir?"

Woolsey looked at Larrin for a moment with a frown on his face, but when she crossed her arms and coldly held his gaze, he turned back to Sheppard and started talking.

"Colonel Sheppard, one of the teams we sent to M4D-935 just reported that they found what we were looking for, as well as a Wraith Hive ship docked on the planet. I'm scrubbing tomorrow's recon mission. Your new objective is to take whatever force you think appropriate and destroy that hive with the resources we have available. I would recommend a stealth infiltration, but I will defer to your judgment."

"That's a major operation sir. What was on M4D that was so valuable again?"

"M4D-935 represents our first strategic objective in the war with the Wraith Colonel. As you know our current shipbuilding capability is limited and slow, incapable of providing enough ships to secure both the Milky Way and Pegasus. The IOA has decided the time has come for that to change. M4D has vast, easily accessible deposits of Neutronium and Trinium. Once the Hive is out of the picture, we will start building new 304s there."


End file.
